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Writers Guild West President Victoria Riskin
announced that healthcare costs and jurisdictional issues stemming
from reality TV production are the union’s top priorities in upcoming contract
negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The current contract expires May 1, 2004. Riskin’s announcement
serves as a likely
All Hollywood labor unions are facing soaring healthcare costs. The health plans for WGA, SAG, AFTRA and the DGA — each jointly administered by representatives of the individual unions and the studios — have been forced to tighten eligibility and cut benefits. The IATSE extricated itself from this dilemma by negotiating higher AMPTP health contributions in its new contract.
Riskin noted that costs for the WGA plan jumped 12% last year, leading trustees to boost deductibles and raise the co-payment for prescriptions. The plan is forecast to end 2003 with a $9 million deficit, rising to $13 million by the end of 2004. Riskin also proposed extending WGA jurisdiction into reality TV, animation and independent filmmaking. Other key issues include late payments, arbitrary replacement of original screenplay writers, and boosting residuals for home video and made-for-pay cable TV. Variety 04/02/03 | Variety 05/01/03
A special three-judge panel struck down parts of the McCain-Feingold Act, last year’s landmark campaign finance law banning “soft money” contributions, in a ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court will review. Struck down as unconstitutional was the ban on advertisements paid for by unions and corporations, and broadcast within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election. The AFL-CIO was one of 80 plaintiffs objecting to the law. Meanwhile, campaign fundraising for 2004 is already in full swing. According to the Federal Election Commission, as of April 15, Senator John Edwards of South Carolina leads the pack, having collected $7.4 million overall. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is second with $7 million, and Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt is third with $5.9 million. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman pulls up in fourth, having raised $3 million, followed by former Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, with $2.6 million. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich trails with $172,695. President Bush filed with the FEC on May 16, and is expected to raise as much as $200 million. The Bush campaign spent $100 million during the last election, while the Gore campaign spent half of that amount. Variety
04/20/03 | FEC
Search Window | Campaign
Documents Show Depth of Bush Fundraising According to the Labor Research Association (LRA), a non-profit organization that provides research and educational services for trade unions, President George Bush and his policies have spelled disaster for American working families. “ He’s far more anti-labor than even Ronald Reagan was,” says Nathan Newman, a lawyer at New York University law school’s Brennan Center for Justice and vice president of the National Lawyers’ Guild in New York. “From core labor issues like the right to organize to administrative appointments at the National Labor Relations Board, Bush has swiftly reversed much of the gain unions enjoyed under President Clinton — and has eroded standards that had survived even the preceding 12 years of Republican rule of the White House.” Labor Research Association 03/27/03 | Labor Educator 03/19/03 | White House Press Release 01/02/03 In early April, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. agreed to acquire a controlling interest in DirecTV, the nation’s largest home satellite television service, for $6.6 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction. If approved by federal regulators and stockholders, the deal will create a powerful combination of programming and distribution, giving Fox News and Fox Network programs a digital pipeline into 11 million U.S. homes, writes Frank Ahrens in the Washington Post. News Corp. is one of the world’s largest media companies. In addition to the Fox television network and regional sports channels, it owns the 20th Century Fox movie studio, the National Geographic Channel, the FX cable channel and several U.S. television stations. The company also owns TV Guide, The Weekly Standard, the New York Post and the Globe, as well as HarperCollins Publishers and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Federal Communications Com-mission and the Justice Department killed a similar merger last fall between DirecTV and EchoStar, because it would create a monopoly. Murdoch is not expected to face such regulatory hurdles with this transaction, because EchoStar would continue as a competing satellite service. Murdoch’s media properties are well known for promoting conservative views. According to a 19-week study of “Special Report with Brit Hume,” Fox News’ signature political news show, 89% of its guests were Republicans. The study, done by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a national media watchdog group, called Fox News’ right-wing tilt “extraordinary.” The deal aroused concern from Consumers Union, the advocacy organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine. “Consumers Union believes that the News Corp./DirecTV deal illustrates the danger of allowing one company to gain excessive control over local and national media properties, and calls on the FCC to tighten rather than loosen current media ownership rules,” said Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy. Washington
Post 04/09/03 | The
American Prospect 04/09/03 | The
Nation 03/22/2000
The board of ULLICO, the Union Labor Life Insurance Company, will elect Terence O’Sullivan as its new chairman, replacing Robert Georgine. Georgine and 17 other ULLICO directors are under federal investigation because they made more than $6 million selling the company’s stock (see this column, March/April 2003). An independent investigative report released last March recommended that the directors repay that money to the company, having concluded that they profited at the expense of ULLICO’s shareholders. Several union officials have subsequently done so. “ The AFL-CIO has said all along that there can be only one standard for responsible corporate governance,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, “and that unions must be just as willing to expose and remedy conflicts at ULLICO as we have been at other companies in corporate America.” NY Times 04/23/03 | NY Times 05/07/03 | AFL-CIO Press Release 05/08/00 On April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the Nike “Free Speech” case, which has become a contentious First Amendment test. Marc Kasky sued Nike in 1998 under California’s false advertising laws, accusing the world’s largest shoemaker of making false and misleading public statements about its treatment of hundreds of thousands of workers at Asian factories, writes Zachary Coile in the San Francisco Chronicle. The California Supreme Court ruled that Nike’s claims should be treated as advertising, which is regulated, instead of free speech, which is shielded under the First Amendment. Nike appealed the ruling, and the Supreme Court agreed to review the case. “ Nike’s lawyers have tried to frame the debate as if the company has been sued for misleading people about broader issues of economic globalization. But the deceptions Kasky accuses Nike of regard verifiable statements about production practices,” write Jeffrey Kaplan and Jeff Milchen in the on-line journal Common Sense. “If big business hopes to regain the dwindling trust of Americans, claiming the right to lie is hardly the way to do it.” At press time, the court was expected to issue a ruling by the end of June. Common
Sense 04/25/03 | SF
Chronicle 04/24/03 | Nike
v. Kasky, Oral Arguments 4/23/03 |
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